With rapid development of electronic and information industries, computers and the peripheral devices thereof become essential parts in our daily lives. In addition to the working purposes, computers and the peripheral devices thereof can be employed as amusement tools. In a computer system, an input device plays important roles for communicating the computer with the user. The common input device of the computer system includes for example a mouse, a keyboard, a trackball, and the like. Among these input devices, the keyboard device is the most important. Via plural keys of the keyboard device, corresponding instructions may be inputted to the computer.
FIG. 1 is a schematic view illustrating the outward appearance of a conventional keyboard device. There are plural keys mounted on the surface of the conventional keyboard device 1. These keys are classified into ordinary keys 10, numeric keys 11, extension keys 12 and hot keys 13. When one or more keys are pressed, a corresponding signal is issued to the computer and thus the computer executes a function corresponding to the pressed keys. For example, when the ordinary keys 10 are pressed, corresponding symbols (e.g. English letters) are inputted into the computer. When the extension key 12 is pressed, a specified function (e.g. a Page Up function or a Page Down function) is executed. In addition, by pressing the hot key 13, an application program is executed to perform an additional specific function (e.g. starting or stopping playback of a multimedia file). Moreover, the conventional keyboard device 1 further comprises other keys such as Print screen, Caps lock, Number lock and Scroll lock.
As known, in the fabricating process of the keyboard device, a testing process is performed to assure normal functions of the keyboard device. The testing process includes a procedure of testing the circuit board of the keyboard device and a procedure of testing the overall functions of the assembled keyboard device. By testing the circuit board, the manufacturer could realize whether any defects are present in the circuit board or not. If the procedure of testing the circuit board is omitted but some defects are found, the keyboard device needs to be dissembled to debug the circuit board after the keyboard device is assembled. It is troublesome and time-consuming to dissemble the keyboard device and debug the circuit board. The subject matter of the present invention is aimed at the procedure of testing the overall functions of the assembled keyboard device.
Generally, for testing the keyboard device 1, a keyboard test program specially for testing the keyboard device 1 should be previously written. Under execution of the keyboard test program, the tester may successively press all keys of the keyboard device 1 to judge whether the functions of the tested keys of the keyboard device 1 are normal. The key conditional expressions of the keyboard test program are used for testing a keyboard device having a certain key arrangement. That is, if the key arrangement is changed, a different keyboard test program should be employed to test the keyboard device. For complying with diversified requirements, the keyboard manufactures may usually produce various keyboard devices with different key arrangements. For example, the keyboard device may have several additional hot keys with different functions (e.g. volume control of multimedia files) or Korean keys specially designed for Korean users. In other words, for testing a keyboard device with a different key arrangement, a new keyboard test program should be rewritten or the current keyboard test program should be modified to a new keyboard test program. Since the program writing process is both troublesome and time-consuming, there is a need of providing a time-saving keyboard test program generating method.